Crime-fighting proposals take center stage

STOCKTON - Two ambitious crime-fighting plans - one 18 months in the making, the other recently promoted by Stockton's mayor - will be discussed tonight by the City Council.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Two ambitious crime-fighting plans - one 18 months in the making, the other recently promoted by Stockton's mayor - will be discussed tonight by the City Council.

The public-safety conversation comes one day after a federal bankruptcy judge accepted Stockton's Chapter 9 application, making it the largest U.S. city to enter bankruptcy.

The Marshall Plan, a City Hall-backed crime-fighting initiative, was set in motion by former Mayor Ann Johnston and was studied throughout the past year by a 24-person committee. Council members will be asked to vote on continuing some measures and on implementing others.

Discussion of the Marshall Plan will be followed by Mayor Anthony Silva's Stockton Crime Prevention Tax Initiative, a half-cent sales tax plan designed to raise as much as $18 million annually and add 100 officers to the Stockton Police Department. Tonight's agenda calls for an analysis of Silva's proposal.

"It is clear if this measure passed, or anything close to it passed, it would put the City Council in a 'Catch 22' position," City Manager Bob Deis wrote in his analysis. "One option would be to strictly comply ... and thus decimate all General Fund departments other than police and fire. This is due to the 'maintenance of effort' requirements of the measure and due to the imbedded shortfall for each new officer that this ballot measure would create.

"The other option would be to protect the meager services in the current General Fund and simply add no police officers, and the money would simply accumulate in a reserve fund."

Deis said Silva never gave him a copy of the plan nor did he discuss it with the mayor. Silva's close-to-the-vest tactics have drawn sharp criticism from the business community.

On Friday, the Business Council of San Joaquin County sent a letter to Silva, calling on him to better collaborate with the city's elected leaders. The Business Council said it supports the Marshall Plan and opposes Silva's ideas to add "another layer of government to administer a new tax increase" and to create "additional supervision over Stockton's police chief."

The letter was signed by Greenlaw "Fritz" Grupe Jr., chairman of the Business Council.

"Someday we'll need a tax," Grupe said. "But I oppose one at this time, and I oppose anything that adds a new layer of government."

A day earlier, the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce called the mayor's approach "irresponsible, unfair, highly questionable" in a letter.

Two days prior, in a scripted news conference, Silva defended his plan. William Bratton, who has led the police departments of Boston, New York and Los Angeles, stood at his side as Silva presented some of the details that he said would fit "hand in glove" with the Marshall Plan.

Bratton, a nationally known crime-fighting figure, said he would be a consultant if Stockton voters approve the tax plan.

Silva so far has failed to recruit support from other council members. He hopes to put the sales tax initiative on the ballot late this year. It will require two-thirds approval to be enacted. Silva needs to collect 12,000 signatures first.

The chamber letter accused Silva of having a "hidden agenda" and for keeping "city staff ... in the dark."

The mayor pushes back at his detractors in a full-page advertisement on Page A10 of today's Record.

The ad features 13 individuals, 11 of them unidentified, holding signs that talk about higher expectations, standing together and public safety. Bratton is identified in one photograph. The message at the bottom: We Agree.

The critical business community letters go beyond Silva to outside influences on City Hall. The chamber letter said, "It is widely known that there are those, out of public view, fronting either tax increases or other unknown solutions."

The Business Council letter went a step further: "We are aware the city has received a plan to fight crime by the Arnaiz family," a reference to developer Matthew Arnaiz.

Arnaiz and his father, Howard Arnaiz, floated a proposal for a tax plan to pay for more police officers last year. It had circulated among elected and business leaders before Silva got behind it in January, Grupe said.

Work on the Marshall Plan has been revealing.

Utah-based consultant David Bennett was hired to create a "Violence Reduction Strategy" that will be part of tonight's agenda.

Among Bennett's conclusions:

» The city cannot reduce violence on its own. It requires a "cross-system approach" that involves county and state government.

» Stakeholders need four months to review local plans and practices as well as national findings and best-practices research.

» A separate phase of study should focus on how the criminal justice system functions.

» Development of a local road map for community crime reduction is needed.

Bennett's report organized his recommendations into three broad categories - stopping violence, preventing violence and building system capacity.

In his recommendation to the council, Deis said, "Next to getting our fiscal house in order, I believe the Marshall Plan is the most important goal for the recovery of Stockton. We must develop an implementation plan ... in coordination with the bankruptcy negotiations."

Deis also said the city does not need another study "that just sits on the shelf."

Bennett agreed and wrote, "The goal should be more than the cessation of violence. The ultimate goal must be the restoration of peace."